U.S. stock-index futures rally: U.S. stock-index futures are pointing to a higher open on Friday after government data showed the country added more jobs than forecast in June. U.S. non-farm payrolls increased by 195,000 in June after a revised 195,000 gain in May, the Labor Department said on Friday. Economists were expecting the creation of 165,000 new jobs last month. The unemployment rate came in unchanged at 7.6 percent, while year-over-year hourly earnings jumped the most since July 2011. Second quarter earnings season will kick off on Monday with Dow component Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) posting numbers.

European markets gain: European markets pared early losses following better than expected U.S. jobs data. On the economic front, German manufacturing orders declined 1.3 percent in May compared to April’s 2.2 percent drop. Also, France’s trade deficit widened to 6.01 billion euro in May from 4.48 billion euro in April, amid a sharp fall in exports, the country’s customs data showed on Friday. The CAC 40 (INDEXEURO:PX1) lost 1.4 percent to 3690.62, while the DAX (INDEXDB:DAX) shed 1.5 percent to 7796.27. The FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE:UKX) tumbled 1.5 percent to 6213.84 points. The euro zone blue-chip ESTX 50 PR.EUR (INDEXSTOXX:SX5E) (Euro Stoxx 50) was down 1.7 percent in recent trading.

Asian markets end higher: Asian stocks closed higher on Friday after the European Central Bank and the Bank of England signaled their intent to keep interest rates low for some time. The NIKKEI 225 (INDEXNIKKEI:NI225) hit a five-week high as the U.S. dollar jumped back above the 100-yen level. The S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) index soared to a two-week high amid a rally in resource stocks. The SSE Composite Index (SHA:000001) (Shanghai Composite Index) edged 0.1 percent higher to stay above the 2,000 mark.

Stocks in News:

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

The tech giant was sued this week by Boston University for allegedly infringing a 1997 patent. The university filed a lawsuit in a Massachusetts federal court, saying that a display technology used in iPhone 5, iPad and MacBook Air, violates a patent filed by a BU professor. The lawsuit seeks to ban the sale of these products.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has acquired email and address book management service Xobni, for a reported $30 million. This is the Internet company’s third acquisition in as many days, and comes just two days after Yahoo bought Qwiki, a mobile video app, for $50 million. Founded in San Francisco in 2006, Xobni reorganizes email according to the user’s social contacts, and syncs with Facebook and Twitter to create a contacts list that’s based on relevance.

Disney’s big-budget western, “The Lone Ranger,” which was released ahead of the weekend to take advantage of the July 4 holiday, performed below expectations on Wednesday night, raking in $9.67 million in ticket sales. The weak opening raises the possibility that Disney could lose money on the $225 million film. “Despicable Me 2” from Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA)’s Universal Pictures, was the top-selling film in U.S. and Canadian theaters, taking in $34.3 million.

IHS Inc. (NYSE:IHS)

IHS Inc. (NYSE:IHS) has received regulatory antitrust clearance to acquire R.L. Polk & Co. The business information company plans to close the deal during the week of July 15. IHS Inc., which last month announced plans to acquire the privately held automotive information firm, said it was granted early termination of the waiting period required under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.

TransDigm Group Incorporated (NYSE:TDG)

Shares of the aircraft component maker rose in pre-market trading after it declared a special dividend of $22 per share. The dividend will be paid on July 25 to shareholders of record as of July 15. TransDigm also said it has lowered its borrowing costs to about 5 percent after securing a fresh incremental term loan of $900 million.